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Category: World

Naval standoff continues near Taiwan in spite of China claiming war games are over

Editor08 mins

Chinese and Taiwanese ships continued an apparent standoff in the waters near Taiwan despite the Chinese military saying major drills around the island were over, open source investigators said, citing satellite imagery from Sentinel Hub. As the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) wrapped up its week-long operation, held in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, “at least two sets of ships in typical ‘shadowing’ positions [were] observed East of Taiwan” on Wednesday, H I Sutton, a well-known independent defense analyst wrote on Twitter.   On the same day, Beijing released a White Paper on Taiwan and China’s “reunification” policy, which Taiwan dismissed. “Taiwan rejects the “one country, two systems” model proposed by Beijing,” said Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou at a media briefing in Taipei on Thursday. “Only Taiwan’s people can decide its future,” Ou added. Regular patrols Images from satellite data provider Sentinel Hub show two Taiwanese ships “shadowing” two Chinese vessels in waters off Hualian County in eastern Taiwan since early this week, several open source intelligence (OSINT) analysts said.  The PLA announced a major military exercise on Aug. 4 after Pelosi made a controversial stopover in Taipei. Beijing repeatedly warned her against the visit, which it condemned as a “gross violation of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and threatened retaliation. The military exercise was due to end on Aug. 7 but went on for two more days and only wrapped up on Wednesday. Yet the collected OSINT data indicate that China will probably continue to put pressure on the Taiwanese military in coming days.  Sr. Col. Shi Yi, spokesman of the PLA Eastern Theater Command, said on Wednesday that the Command’s troops will continue to “organize normalized combat-readiness security patrols in the Taiwan Strait.” The PLA is starting to “normalize” its activities, including drills east of the median line, adding to the pressure it has already exerted on Taiwan, said Collin Koh, a Singapore-based regional military expert, in a recent interview with RFA. A Taiwan Air Force F-16V taking off from Hualien airbase during a recent drill. CREDIT: Taiwan Defense Ministry Less autonomy for Taiwan On Wednesday, the Chinese government office responsible for Taiwan-related affairs released a White Paper titled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era,” to clarify Beijing’s policy towards the island that it considers a Chinese province. This is the third White Paper on Taiwan, the previous ones were published in 1993 and 2000. “We are one China, and Taiwan is a part of China,” the paper said. “Taiwan has never been a state; its status as a part of China is unalterable,” it reiterated. “Peaceful reunification and One Country, Two Systems are our basic principles for resolving the Taiwan question and the best approach to realizing national reunification,” the White Paper said, adding that “certain political forces have been misrepresenting and distorting its objectives.”  “Lack of details on ‘Two Systems’ compared with the 1993 and 2000 papers suggests an arrangement that might involve less political and legal autonomy for Taiwan,” Amanda Hsiao, China Senior Analyst at the Crisis Group think-tank, wrote on Twitter. The White Paper also provided guidelines for the post-reunification governance over the island. “We maintain that after peaceful reunification, Taiwan may continue its current social system and enjoy a high degree of autonomy in accordance with the law,” it said. However, while both the 1993 and 2000 White Papers pledged that China would not send troops or administrative personnel to be stationed in Taiwan following unification, the 2022 version did not have that line, said Crisis Group’s Hsiao. For the first time Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was mentioned in the paper. “The actions of the DPP authorities have resulted in tension in Cross-Straits relations, endangering peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, and undermining the prospects and restricting the space for peaceful reunification,” it said. “These are obstacles that must be removed in advancing the process of peaceful reunification,” it said, delivering a clear threat to President Tsai Ing-wen’s party.” Recently, China’s ambassador to France provoked an outcry when he said during a TV interview that Taiwanese people will be re-educated after reunification with the mainland. “We will re-educate. I’m sure that the Taiwanese population will again become favorable over the reunification and will become patriots again,” Ambassador Lu Shaye told BFM TV. The Taiwanese authorities have “effectively indoctrinated and intoxicated” the population through de-Sinicization policies, Lu said in another interview. “Re-education” is the indoctrination technique used by several authoritarian regimes against dissent. China has been criticized by foreign countries and human rights groups for its re-education programs for the Uyghurs in its northwestern Xinjiang province.  

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Woman killed, son injured, in shelling of Chin state village

Editor03 mins

A 55-year-old woman was killed and her son was injured when a shell hit a village during fighting between junta forces and local militia in Hakha city, the capital of Myanmar’s Chin State. Local residents told RFA Wednesday’s battle broke out between the Hakha Chin Land Defense Force and the military’s Ka La Ya 266 battalion near the city’s ministerial residences. A local, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, told RFA an artillery shell landed on a house in Hniarlawn village, 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Hakha city. “She was hit by the artillery shell and died on the spot while she was cooking in the kitchen,” the resident said. “One of her sons was wounded in the hand. Her body has been left there for now because everyone has fled to the forest.” The woman was cooking in her kitchen when the shell hit her home. CREDIT: Chin Journal Calls by RFA to Military Council Spokesman Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered on Thursday. This is not the first time fighting has affected Hniarlawn village, which houses more than 600 people in over 100 homes. Last month, 22-year-old Salai Manliansan was shot dead by junta troops there, according to residents. Battles break out daily in Chin state, causing many locals to flee their homes and set up makeshift camps in the jungle. UNICEF says the state, in the west of the country, has the highest poverty rate of all Myanmar’s regions but aid has been slow to arrive. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said last week 866,000 people had become refugees in Myanmar in the 18 months since the Feb. 2021 coup. There are now more than 1.2 million internally displaced persons across the country, or more than 2% of the total population.

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Vietnam’s government struggles to counter what it calls “fake news”

Editor03 mins

Vietnam’s Ministry of Information & Communication is cracking down on “online fake and malicious news,” spread by users in a country where tens of millions of people use global social networking sites every day. The issue of distorted reports that could spread confusion and misinformation was brought up by legislators at the country’s National Assembly during the 14th session of the NA’s Standing Committee. State-controlled media carried quotes by Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung on Wednesday. Hung said “fake news” mainly appeared on homepages of global sites such as Facebook and YouTube. He said the multinational platforms had increased their response to Vietnamese removal requests from 20% in 2018 to 90-95% today.  Hung said before 2018 there were about 5,000 stories and videos that were deemed to be untrue by the government, which asked for them to be removed. He said the number has increased 20-fold to 100,000 stories and videos a day. Last year the ministry set up the Vietnam Counterfeit News Center to tackle the problem. It also ordered the National Cyber ​​​​Safety Center to detect “false information,” as early as possible. The processing capacity of the center has increased from 100 million messages per day to 300 million. The ministry has also issued an online code of conduct to establish standards of behavior by social network users and persuade them to act responsibly in their written and video posts. Hung said since the beginning of the year hundreds of violations on spreading “fake news” have been recorded and handled. A number of cases identified as criminal violations have been transferred to the Ministry of Public Security. Facebook said 20 million Vietnamese use the social networking site every day, 17 million of them on mobile devices. The country is 13% above the global average in terms of daily usage, Facebook said. YouTube had 66.63 million users in Vietnam last year, according to the data website Statista.com, which estimates the number will rise to 75.44 million by 2025. Vietnam led the Asia Pacific in terms of the number of YouTube broadcasters late last year, according to local website VNExpress, with 25 million live streamers.

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Junta troops kill 5, torch hundreds of homes in Kachin state village

Editor08 mins

Junta troops killed five civilians and torched as many as 400 homes over three days of air raids, heavy artillery fire and fierce clashes with a joint force of ethnic rebels and pro-democracy paramilitaries in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state, residents said Wednesday. Four of the victims were killed on Tuesday when military jets flew the first of eight bombing runs over Se Zin village in the jade mining township of Hpakant, killing a child, said a resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns. “The last plane bombed at about 8:00 pm and then they fired at the village with machine guns and 60-mm heavy weapons,” he told RFA Burmese. “The child died on the spot when his house was hit by the shelling. One woman had to have her leg amputated. And this morning, about 6:00 am, a family was shot at while trying to leave on a motorcycle. The husband and wife and their son [all died].” The fifth victim, a man in his 40s, died on Monday when a shell fell on his house during heavy fighting near the village, the resident said. He told RFA that there may have been additional casualties in the village, but said they hadn’t been confirmed. The raid followed a Monday attack by a combined column of ethnic Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries that led to the capture of a military camp in Se Zin village and a pro-military Shanni National Army (SNA) camp located across the river in Shwepyi Myint village in Sagaing region’s Homalin township. The joint force also attacked the Se Zin Village Police Station on Tuesday. RFA was unable to confirm the number of casualties in the clashes. Another Se Zin resident, who also did not want to be named, said hundreds of homes in the village were destroyed in a fire set by junta troops. “There are about 500 houses in the whole village and 300 or 400 have been turned to ash,” he said. “The fires were set by the military and the Shanni forces. They did it deliberately. They even set fire to houses that were left undestroyed [in the bombing].” Se Zin is a busy village surrounded by private gold mines in Hpakant’s Hawng Par village tract. The fighting forced more than 3,000 residents of Se Zin to flee to the township’s Tar Ma Hkan village, about an hour away by motorcycle, where they are sheltering in schools, churches and monasteries, the resident said. He said the refugees had fled with only the shirts on their backs and are in need of emergency food, clothing and medicine. Other residents of Hpakant told RFA that some of the villagers remain trapped in Se Zin, where the military has set up a camp. File photo of houses in Se Zin village, Hpakant township, Kachin State. Credit: Citizen journalist The ‘usual response’ Speaking to RFA on Wednesday, Social Affairs Minister Win Ye Tun, who serves as the junta’s spokesperson in Kachin state, said the details of the situation in Se Zin village are “not yet known,” but said the military is “ready to help” those who have fled their homes. “We have contingency plans for people who have to leave their homes because of fighting,” he said. “I haven’t received any news yet about the fires or the clashes. I am the minister of social affairs, so reports about the fighting don’t come to me.” Col. Naw Bu, the news and information officer for the ethnic Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), said it has become “routine” for the military to burn the homes of residents whenever there is a clash. “Last night, there was an attack on the police station in Se Zin village and this is the usual response of the [junta],” he said. “When there is a battle with their adversaries, whether it is near a village or their camp, or in the village, they won’t hesitate to kill people or torch houses.” Naw Bu confirmed that there had been three consecutive days of heavy fighting in Se Zin village beginning on Monday and that the military had “launched aerial attacks all day” on Tuesday. The raid on Se Zin comes less than a month after about a week of clashes beginning on July 16 between the military and the armed opposition in and around the village. Hpakant is one of the most heavily militarized townships in Kachin state. The military cut off mobile internet access to the area on Aug. 20 last year. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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Relatives of political prisoners in Vietnam push for proper health care for inmates

Editor09 mins

About 30 families of political prisoners in Vietnam are calling on the government to allow sick inmates to be hospitalized after two inmates died, they said, from lack of timely care. Do Cong Duong, an independent journalist who was jailed on charges of “disturbing public order” and “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy,” died at a hospital in Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province, on Aug. 2, while serving time in Detention Center No. 6.  He was healthy prior to his arrest, but he contracted multiple diseases in prison, and his supporters say authorities did not give him timely access to appropriate medical treatment.  Duong’s passing was the second death among prisoners of conscience at the detention facility. Another prisoner of conscience, Dao Quang Thuc, died in the same detention facility in 2019. The retired teacher was serving a 13-year term for “subversion” because of Facebook postings. When he showed signs of illness in prison, authorities took him to Nghe An Friendship General Hospital for treatment but after he returned to the detention center, he died a week later of what authorities said was a stroke, RFA reported at the time. His body was held for autopsy and not returned to his family for burial, sources said. The families of prisoners of conscience sent the signed open letter on Aug. 9 to authorities stating their concerns over the health conditions of their imprisoned relatives, said Pham Thi Lan, the wife of political prisoner Nguyen Tuong Thuy, a former RFA blogger who is serving an 11-year jail term at An Phuoc Detention Center in the southern province of Binh Duong. The relatives expressed outrage at the recent deaths and demanded that the Vietnamese government ensure that their incarcerated family members have access to health care, as Vietnamese law demands.  The open letter said that the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights also requires that political prisoners be given access to proper health care. The Vietnamese government must respect prisoners’ rights, including rights to safe water and food and timely health care, the letter said.  Political prisoners’ health has been a long-standing concern of their families and has become a hot-button issue after the two prisoners’ deaths. Lan said she was “gravely concerned” about Thuy’s health because the 72-year-old suffers from high blood pressure, gout and skin diseases. “The prison clinic does provide my husband with some medicines, but I am not sure whether the medicines work or their provision is just a temporary solution,” she said via text message.  “I did request that they allow my husband to see a specialist, but the detention center refused, saying that Mr. Thuy was healthy enough to serve his prison term,” she added.  Thuy’s family has expressed concerns about his health since he was detained, she said.   ‘Many have lost their lives’ Nguyen Van Hai, a political prisoner who was released and sent to the U.S. in 2014, said that he and other inmates lacked proper health care. Some prisoners with heart issues who were not allowed to keep medicines in their cells died because they didn’t have access to their drugs or to urgent care, said Hai, a Vietnamese blogger and co-founder of the Free Journalists Club of Vietnam. “Detention centers refuse to provide treatment for prisoners who have health problems,” he said. “This happens especially at Xuyen Moc Detention Center [in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province], Detention Center No. 6 in Nghe An province, and Detention Center No. 5 in Thanh Hoa province. Many have lost their lives in prison.”  The harsh prison conditions, which may include forced labor, exacerbate a prisoner’s existing health problems, Hai said.  Prison wardens and guards do not feel pressure to provide prisoners of conscience proper care because the authorities themselves are also empowered to investigate the deaths, so there is little accountability, he said.  “When prison doors shut, laws and regulations have to stay outside them,” Hai told RFA. “The prisoners’ fates are in the hands of prison wardens and guards. Therefore, these people are very aggressive.”  Hai said he believed that the treatment of prisoners of conscience would improve if the international community paid closer attention to the issue. Under Vietnam’s 2019 Law on the Execution of Criminal Judgements, prisoners have the right to receive treatment at detention centers, prisons or the nearest state-run medical center.  Prisoners that have serious illnesses that cannot be treated locally should be transferred to higher-level medical establishments, and district-level police must inform their families or a representative about the transfer, according to the law.  Human rights attorney Nguyen Van Dai, who has twice been imprisoned for a total of nearly seven years, said the treatment of prisoners of conscience is often based on the whims of police officials. “For example, if investigators say that prison guards should treat suspects [held in detention]  well, then that person will be provided with very good food and health care,” he told RFA. “However, the treatment towards the suspect will be reversed, including the provision of health care, if investigators say that he or she should be treated poorly. “Investigators want to put pressure on the suspect through this treatment so that they can quickly get the investigation outcomes they want,” he added.  Dai, founder of the Brotherhood for Democracy, also said medical staff at prison clinics are usually able to only handle minor health issues. But prison authorities make it difficult for inmates with serious illnesses to move to a better-equipped and staffed medical center.  Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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ASEAN aid promised in May has yet to reach Myanmar’s refugees

Editor017 mins

Myanmar’s junta has yet to deliver humanitarian assistance pledged three months ago by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the country’s more than 1.2 million refugees of conflict, who aid workers say are in dire need of food and medicine. At a May 6 meeting in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA) agreed to deliver aid to Myanmar under the supervision of the military regime, which would distribute it to those in need. However, aid workers in northwest Myanmar’s Sagaing region told RFA Burmese that as of Monday none of the promised aid had been delivered there or other regions with refugees in need, including Chin, Kayah and Kayin states. “ASEAN’s help hasn’t made it to Sagaing yet,” said Thet Oo, who is assisting victims of conflict with the People-to-People Program in the region’s Yinmarbin and Salingyi townships. “It’s been three months since their meeting, but nothing has come to Yinmarbin district at all.” Thet Oo warned ASEAN not to trust the junta’s promises. “The junta, which is terrorizing us, will never provide the aid or assistance they agreed to with ASEAN,” he said. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced on Aug. 3 that 866,000 people had joined the ranks of Myanmar’s refugees since the military’s Feb. 1, 2021 coup, bringing the total number to more than 1.2 million, or more than 2% of the country’s population of 54.4 million. Of the new refugees, some 470,000 were forced to flee their homes in Sagaing, where clashes between junta troops and the armed opposition are among the deadliest and most frequent in the nation. Thet Oo said his organization is struggling to provide assistance with only donations to rely on. Meanwhile, the military is carrying out a scorched earth offensive in the region, conducting raids on villages and setting them on fire, and creating new refugees each day, he said. In neighboring Chin state, where fierce fighting is also a daily occurrence, refugees are also facing severe shortages, aid workers told RFA. “The need for food and medicine is still very great. There isn’t enough food in the mountains. No NGOs have yet come here,” a spokesman for the Mindat Township Refugee Camps Management Committee said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Since the beginning, when we heard ASEAN would be providing assistance through the junta, we have been skeptical. It was clear that Chin state would not be included in the distribution program. Sure enough, no aid has reached the refugees in Mindat township to date.” Repeated calls by RFA seeking comment from junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun on the status of the ASEAN aid distribution went unanswered. Agreement panned ASEAN’s decision to deliver assistance to Myanmar’s refugees through the junta was slammed by the country’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), as well as the Karen National Union (KNU), Karenni National Progressive Party and Chin National Front ethnic parties as “unacceptable” in a joint statement on May 30. The groups, which the junta says are terrorist organizations, were not extended an invitation by ASEAN to the May 6 meeting in Phnom Penh at the request of the military regime, nor was the U.N. secretary general’s special representative to Myanmar, Nolin Heza. Win Myat Aye, NUG minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, told RFA this week that ASEAN’s plan to provide aid through the junta will not do anything for the people who are suffering the most in Myanmar. “What ASEAN is doing …  is impractical. It hasn’t been successful because it never reached those who really need it for more than three months now,” he said. “NUG is now already working to meet the actual needs on the ground. We are working in cooperation with international organizations, so the information we act on will be true and we can provide the necessary help. … In order to be successful, we need to help with real action, not just words.” Win Myat Aye noted that the NUG disaster ministry had been providing shelter and medicine to refugees for the last 18 months since the coup. Aid workers helping refugees in Chin, Kayah and Kayin states, as well as some townships in Sagaing and Magway regions, told RFA that even if the junta is working to deliver assistance from ASEAN, it only controls Myanmar’s cities and its administration is broken in rural areas. KNU spokesman Pado Saw Tawney said that the junta is incapable of reaching all of the country’s refugees on its own. “There are over a million [refugees] according to available statistics. But in fact, what we believe is that there may be 2 million or more,” he said. “This situation has become a problem that cannot be solved internally. It requires cooperation with the international community. … That’s the bottom line. Nothing will happen if it is carried out by the junta alone.” The U.N. humanitarian affairs office said in its statement on Aug. 3 that the security and humanitarian aid situations in Myanmar have worsened significantly as fighting continues throughout the country. The agency said efforts to deliver assistance to refugees have been hamstrung by military restrictions on the transportation of essential goods, including food and medical supplies. Ethnic Chin refugees shelter in a jungle area after fleeing fighting between Myanmar’s junta forces and local militias in Chin state’s Mindat township, May 2021. Credit: Citizen journalist Call for stronger measures Reports of the worsening refugee situation in Myanmar came as the country’s opposition groups and analysts called on ASEAN to adopt stronger measures in its dealing with the junta following the bloc’s 55th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Phnom Penh from July 31 to Aug. 6. During the gathering, most ASEAN member states criticized the junta for failing to implement the bloc’s agreements and for its July 25 execution of four democracy activists, including former student leader Ko Jimmy and a former lawmaker from Myanmar’s deposed National League for Democracy party….

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Hong Kong police arrest four over ‘seditious’ Facebook page, radio hosts denounced

Editor08 mins

Hong Kong police arrested four people for “seditious” social media posts in connection with a Facebook page titled “Civil servant secrets,” after the page was denounced by a newspaper backed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for “inciting civil servants” and “smearing government policies and operations.” Two were accused of being the administrators of the group, which stopped posting on the day of the arrests, but later started up at a different address calling itself “Civil servant secrets 2.0.” The last visible post on the original page showed a police officer leaving his firearm unattended as he took a nap on some chairs. Another two were members of the Fire Services Department, and were suspected of having posted to the group, the CCP-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper reported. All four were released on bail on Wednesday, the Hong Kong Free Press cited police as saying. Political denunciations in CCP-backed media are increasingly being used to target civil society groups, journalists and NGOs in Hong Kong. The denunciations usually focus on accusations that a given organization has done something that could be in breach of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the CCP from July 1, 2020. The merged Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao website also denounced outspoken political commentator and talk-show host Poon Siu-to, political scientist Simon Shen, veteran journalist Chip Tsao and four colleagues at Commercial Radio for In an Aug. 8 report on a complaint lodged by a pro-CCP group with the city’s Communications Authority about Commercial Radio, the paper reported that the group had complained that the station is “spreading poison” and “betraying Hong Kong.” “Some show hosts have used the platform to publish anti-China speeches betraying Hong Kong and misleading its people,” the report cited the complaint as saying. “They include Poon Siu-to, Simon Shen, Chip Tsao, Jacky Fung, Jan Lamb, Michelle Lo, Ken Yuen and others from Commercial Radio,” the report said. “The group strongly urged the Communications Authority to strictly supervize the media and not allow the station to arbitrarily invite guests who spread anti-government messages and hate speech against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments,” it said. “These hosts have often made false remarks in the program, which they infiltrated with their extreme political stance and distorted values, turning it into a platform for their personal political propaganda … only making negative comments or overly politicized comments and distorted logic … when it comes to governance or China-related topics,” it quoted the complaint as saying. The group called on the authority to take action to silence their “hostile words and deeds,” and prevent them from using the station to spread “poison,” the report said. Tsang Chi-ho, who once hosted the banned satirical news show Headliner for government broadcaster RTHK, said the pro-Beijing press is now casting its net wider than ever. “This encompasses a very broad spectrum,” Tsang told RFA. “Leaving aside the political commentators, Poon Siu-to, Chip Tsao and others, they have even included Jan Lamb who is known as a comedian.” “Nobody thought they would be put in the same category, but now it seems they are,” he said. “It sends the message that anyone who talks about serious political issues will be targeted, even if you just make light-hearted, satirical comments,” Tsang said. Tsang, who was himself denounced many times by the pro-CCP media in Hong Kong before his show was shelved in 2020 for “insulting the police,” said political satire, once a ubiquitous part of Hong Kong’s media offering, appears now to be a thing of the past. He said anyone with a public platform is now vulnerable to similar denunciations, with scant support from a fast-disappearing civil society, an increasingly muzzled media, and a Legislative Council that has been purged of any political opposition. He said the denunciations appear timed to coincide with the forthcoming mid-term review of Commercial Radio’s broadcasting license. “They only approved the renewal of the license for 12 years … with a mid-term review in 2022, so perhaps they are … putting pressure on Commercial Radio to make adjustments to the style and attitude of their programming,” Tsang said. Hong Kong Journalists’ Association (HKJA) chairman Ronson Chan also expressed surprise at the list of names in the article. “If they’re even going to rectify Jacky Lam, then we have a huge problem,” Chan told RFA. “If Jacky Lam, an iconic personality on Commercial Radio, gets rectified, or silenced, or changes his approach in any way, this will naturally mean people lose confidence in the station.” He said people denounced by pro-CCP media are likely to face investigation by police under the national security law imposed on the city by Beijing from July 1, 2020. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Leak ‘partially fixed’ at Laos’ Nam Theun 1 Dam

Editor06 mins

Dam workers in Laos are moving to contain leakage at a large hydroelectric project on the Mekong River following concerns that a breach could lead to the structure’s collapse, flooding areas downstream. Engineers working at the Nam Theun 1 Dam, located in Borikhamxay province’s Pakkading district, have now “partially stopped the leak,” an employee at the Nam Theun 1 Power Company, the dam’s developer, told RFA on Tuesday. “They’re working on this little by little and step by step. Now, only a little bit of water is oozing out,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter. Power officials had assured nervous residents in July that a video showing the dam leaking water depicted only “seepage” that would have no effect on operations or safety at the hydroelectric dam on a Mekong River tributary. Video of the apparent leakage was shared on Facebook on July 16, a week before the fourth anniversary of the Southeast Asian country’s worst-ever dam collapse, which killed more than 70 people. On July 23, 2018, billions of cubic feet of water from a tributary of the Mekong River poured over a collapsed saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower project in Attapeu province in southern Laos. The disaster wiped out all or part of 19 villages downstream, leaving 71 people dead and displacing 14,440 others. Some still afraid Speaking to RFA, villagers living downstream from Nam Theun 1 gave mixed reactions to the news of the dam’s partial containment, with some voicing confidence in the work being done to fix the leak, and others saying they are afraid the dam could still collapse. “They’re fixing the leak, so I’m not as afraid as I was before,” said a resident of Pakkading district’s Phonchareun village, located about eight kilometers below the dam. “They say that the leaking water was coming only from the mountain.” “During the first two weeks of the leak, a lot of us panicked because we have seen dam breaks happen before,” he said. “We’re not worried anymore,” said a resident of the district’s Phon Ngam village, living about seven kilometers below the dam and speaking like RFA’s other sources on condition of anonymity.  “I think they’ve already fixed the leak now.” Another villager living just below the dam agreed. “I feel safer now. I don’t know exactly what they’re fixing, but I hope that nothing will happen.” However, other villagers living near the dam still voiced concern. “Many of us are not completely confident in the repairs being done,” one villager said. “We’re constantly monitoring the leak and are preparing for the worst so we can protect ourselves in case of an emergency.” “We’re still scared because we live below the dam,” added another resident of Phon Ngam. “They say the leaking water is coming from somewhere else and not from the dam, but we’re still worried and are taking precautions,” he said. The Nam Theun 1 Dam is a part of Laos’ plans to build dozens of hydropower projects on the Mekong River and its tributaries to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia’ by exporting electricity to neighboring countries. Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the landlocked country’s economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers without adequate compensation, and questionable financial and power demand arrangements. Translated by RFA’s Lao Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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China fears losing international support for its claims on Taiwan: analysts

Editor014 mins

China increasingly fears losing international support for its claim that the democratic island of Taiwan and China are part of a “one China” that was split apart during the civil war and is awaiting “unification,” analysts told RFA. The Chinese government on Wednesday released a white paper on Taiwan, reiterating its stance and not withdrawing its ongoing military threat against the island, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) nor formed part of the 73-year-old People’s Republic of China. When the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) regime of Chiang Kai-shek fled there after losing the civil war to Mao Zedong’s Soviet-backed communists, it took over what had been a dependency of Japan since 1895, when Taiwan’s inhabitants proclaimed a short-lived Republic of Formosa after being ceded to Japan by the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Nonetheless, Beijing forces countries to choose between diplomatic recognition of Beijing or Taipei, and has repeatedly threatened to annex the island, should it seek formal statehood as Taiwan. “The white paper … was … released amid the escalating cross-Straits tensions and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s military drills against Taiwan secessionists and foreign interference,” China’s nationalistic tabloid the Global Times reported. It said the white paper’s release is “a warning to Taiwan authorities as well as external forces,” citing “analysts.” “We are one China, and Taiwan is a part of China,” it quoted the white paper as saying. “Taiwan has never been a state; its status as a part of China is unalterable,” the paper said, adding that Beijing is “committed to the historic mission of … complete reunification.” The current Taiwan government still uses the name of the KMT’s 1911 Republic of China, and operates as a sovereign state despite a lack of international diplomatic recognition or participation in global bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO). The recent visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island on Aug. 2-3 was viewed by Beijing as a “serious provocation,” and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched a series of military exercises that encroached into waters that were previously regarded as Taiwan’s. This week, Beijing reacted strongly to a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and Japanese foreign minister Hayashi Yoshimasa, in which they appeared to qualify their support for the “one China” policy, which Beijing demands as a prerequisite for diplomatic ties. Children pose for photos at the 68-nautical-mile scenic spot, the closest point in mainland China to the island of Taiwan, in Pingtan in southeastern China’s Fujian Province, Aug. 5, 2022. Credit: AP No change in policy Blinken, Wong and Hayashi condemned China’s launch of ballistic missiles — five of which Japan has said landed in its waters — which they said had raised tensions and destabilized the region. In a joint statement, they called on China to cease its military exercises around Taiwan immediately. “There is no change in the respective one China policies, where applicable, and basic positions on Taiwan of Australia, Japan, or the United States,” the statement concluded. Asked to confirm whether the addition of the words “where applicable” was new for Washington, a State Department spokesperson on Tuesday replied: “I’d just refer you back to the statement.” President Joe Biden has previously said China is ‘flirting with danger’ with its ongoing threat to annex Taiwan, saying the U.S. is committed to defending the island in the event of a Chinese invasion, a statement U.S. officials later framed as an interpretation of the existing terms of the Taiwan Relations Act requiring Washington to ensure the island has the means to defend itself. Chinese foreign minister Wang Wenbin hit out at the joint statement from Washington, Canberra and Tokyo, saying countries shouldn’t add clauses that contextualize their support for the one China policy. “Certain countries have unilaterally added preconditions and provisos to the one-China policy in an attempt to distort, fudge and hollow out their one-China commitment,” Wang told journalists on Tuesday. “This is illegal, null and void … [and] also a challenge to the post-WWII world order.” “Attempts to challenge the one-China principle, international rule of law and the international order are bound to be rejected by the international community and get nowhere,” Wang said. Ding Shufan, an honorary professor at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, said that, in fact, U.S. policy in Taiwan has always been conditional on the relatively peaceful status quo that has been seen since over recent decades. “It’s possible that [the three countries] were somewhat deliberate in adding this,” Ding said. “[It means] that if the situation in the Taiwan Strait gets out of control, [their support for] the one China policy could change.” Chung Chi-tung, an assistant researcher at the National Defense Security Research Institute, said the military exercises were a form of protest over the deterioration in the U.S.-China relationship begun under the Trump administration, which eventually removed a ban on high-ranking visits to Taiwan by U.S. officials that wasn’t reinstated under President Joe Biden. “Everyone has been looking at the military situation, but they have ignored the fact that the most important thing it shows about China is how worried it is by this setback in relations with the U.S., and by the internationalization of the Taiwan Strait issue,” Chung told RFA. Counterproductive stance He said Beijing has been explicit about this right from the start, mentioning the “hollowing out” of international support for the one China policy. “China wants to put a stop to the internationalization of the Taiwan Strait issue that was caused by Pelosi’s visit,” Chung said. “This is counterproductive, because the focus of global attention is the U.S.’ one China policy, which is in conflict with China’s [formulation of] the principle.” Chung said no other countries made any comment at all during the Taiwan Strait missile crisis of 1995 and 1996, but this time even Southeast Asian nations and members of ASEAN have criticized China’s actions and taken Washington’s side. Chang Meng-jen, convenor of the diplomacy and international…

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More than a thousand villagers flee Sagaing region battle

Editor03 mins

Two People’s Defense Force members died in fighting with Myanmar junta troops in Sagaing region’s Ye-U township. A local PDF commander confirmed they were both members of the local defense force. The PDF said at least 10 junta troops also died but RFA could not independently verify this. More than 1,000 locals fled Kone Thar, Ywar Thit, Nga Pyaw Taw and Kun Ohn villages after air raids on Wednesday, residents told RFA. A Kone Thar resident, who declined to be named for security reasons, said during the battle in the village the junta used helicopter gunships and fired on the village for around 30 minutes. Fighting broke out when junta soldiers arrived from Nyaung Hla and Mu Son villages. Helicopters were brought in to help the soldiers, arriving twice in the morning to drop off troops and fire on PDF members. The local resident told RFA the gunfire was not just aimed at the militia but also damaged roads and a hospital. Although most of the residents were able to flee, some elderly people were left in Kone Thar. Locals said they don’t know how many residents were killed because they were afraid to return to the village until the fighting died down. They said around 100 junta soldiers are still in Kone Thar. RFA’s calls to Sagaing region’s Military Council Minister of Social Affairs Aye Hlaing went unanswered. Military Council spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, said in the past the military council forces only attack villages in Sagaing Region that are training and hiding members of the PDFs. Internet and telephone access in Ye-U township is often cut off when junta forces carry out raids, locals told RFA. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said more than 1.2 million people have fled their homes across Myanmar between the Feb. 1, 2021 coup and Aug. 3.

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Investigative Journalism Reportika © March 2022 by Ij-Reportika is licensed under CC BY 4.0